296 



as if to prevent the loss of fluid by evaporation ; but in a damp 

 atmosphere the lid opens, and the quantity of fluid contained in the 

 pitcher soon exhibits an increase. Dr. Turner found the fluid con- 

 tained in the unopened pitcher of a plant of Nepenthes which flowered 

 in the Botanic Garden of Edinburgh " to emit, while boiling, an odour 

 like baked apples, from containing a trace of vegetable matter, and to 

 yield minute crystals of superoxalate of potash on being slowly eva- 

 porated to dryness ;" and Dr. Balfour mentions that other chemists 

 have detected in it muriate of soda, malic and other acids. 



Mr. Griffith states that the pitchers of Dischidia " appear at no 

 period to contain fluids, but invariably contain one or more branched 

 roots, which, taking their origin from various parts of the petiole, pass 

 down through the opening. These roots are always more succulent 

 and of a lighter colour than those formed in any other part." From 

 analogy I should have supposed that fluid would have been secreted 

 or collected by the pitchers of Dischidia as well as by those of Sar- 

 racenia and Nepenthes ; the more especially as the presence of these 

 adventitious roots within the pitchers, as observed by Mr. Griffith, in 

 a great measure confirms the following description, of which I have a 

 note, but I regret to say without any reference as to the authority or 

 anything to show where I met with it. 



Dischidia Rafi^lesiana, a denizen of the Indian forests, has a long 

 twining stem, destitute of leaves until near the summit, which may be 

 perhaps 100 feet or more from the ground. Its supplies of moisture 

 would be uncertain in a tropical climate, were there no provision for 

 storing up what the plant occasionally collects ; and with such a 

 provision is it furnished. The edges of the leaves approach each 

 other and cohere, and thus form a hollow pitcher, the upper end or 

 mouth from which it is suspended being open, and adapted to receive 

 whatever moisture may fall upon it in the form of rain or dew : the 

 pitcher is accordingly found always to contain a considerable quantity 

 of fluid. But the most curious part of the whole apparatus is a tuft 

 of absorbent fibres, resembling those of the roots, which are pro- 

 longed from the nearest part of the branch, or from the petiole, to 

 which the pitcher is attached, and enter the open mouth of the pitcher, 

 so as to reach the fluid stored up within. These fibres may thus be 

 regarded as secondary roots, serving to absorb and to introduce into 

 the system of the plant the fluid aliment collected in the reservoirs. 



George Luxford. 



August 15, 1851. 



